


Gross things like romance

by Snakesareprettycooltbh



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: A bit aged up ciel, Just a lil oneshot, Kissing, M/M, card game bets, first try at a fic, phantomhive servants squad, small and salty earl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 09:37:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8200304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snakesareprettycooltbh/pseuds/Snakesareprettycooltbh
Summary: Ciel makes a bet he didn't expect to lose. Maybe losing it isn't so bad.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first fic and it's probably not very good, but hey you learn by practice. If anyone has any advice or corrections or tips I'd love to hear them. I just really like this pairing and I wish there were more fics of them out there because they have such a great dynamic, so heck I guess I'll try putting my ideas about them into the world, maybe it'll inspire someone else too. I'll probably post more things once I write some more, hopefull theyll get better, so feel free to watch my journey.

Ciel had always thought his first kiss would be Lizzy. After all, why wouldn't it be? She was his fiancée. She was beautiful. He adored her. It made perfect sense that if he was to kiss anyone it would be her. As it was though, the first person he locked lips with wasn't his fiancée. It wasn't even a girl. Instead it was wasted on that absolute fool, a man not even fit for polite society. Lau.

They had been playing cards as usual. The evening was getting on and much to ciels ever increasing irritation, lau kept winning. It was completely unacceptable that he could lose anything against that sort of man. For heavens sake, he was probably on some sort of opium at the time, which should have made him even less skilled. Ciel grew more and more frustrated when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

"Lau!!" He exclaimed angrily, "you've been cheating this whole time!!" 

Lau responded slowly in his lilting tone "Me my lord? Why I would never cheat. I respect you much too much for that. Is it so hard to believe I'm winning on my own skills? You wound me lord earl-" 

"Cut the crap lau. I can see the cards up your sleeve. And to think I thought you genuinely had a skill for a moment."

"Oh well, I guess you caught me. Still, perhaps if one can't catch on to another's cheating, their lack of observance means they deserve to lose, don't you think my lord?" the older man philosophized.

Ignoring laus snide theories, ciel went on. "If you were actually honest I would beat you every time, I doubt you even know how to play." 

"What an interesting theory my lord. Care to bet anything on that?"

"Hardly. You'd only cheat. I'm losing patience with you, goodnight"

With that, ciel stormed off to his room. Lau looked after the boy with amusement. He was starting to have an idea.

***

Ciel was bored. And tired. And hungry. Mostly hungry though. He had been working in his office the whole day. As he got older, the work involved in running the Funtom company seemed ever increasing. Now at the age of seventeen he was beginning to gain the respect of those he worked with but in exchange he was losing every last bit of free time he had.

"Sebastian! Wherever you are, bring me something to eat. Preferably  
sweet." he called out.

However instead of Sebastian's face it was lau's that appeared in the doorway to his office.

"Did you say you wanted sweets?" Lau asked. "I have several with me if you'd like them"

Ciel glared at the annoyance in his doorway. "I'm not nearly hungry enough to trust anything you'd offer me to eat. I'm much too busy to deal with you today lau, please leave my office"

"Oh but lord earl, I had something I wanted to talk to you about. Remember what I mentioned about a bet playing cards, no cheating involved? Well I had an idea. You see, you could get that funny butler of yours to watch the game of cards. I'm sure he could tell if I was cheating. That way you could safely make a bet with full confidence that the only thing making the winner would be skill. Whaddaya think, earl?"

Ciel thought to himself. For this to be worthwhile, he needed something worth betting on from the man.

After a moments consideration, ciel spoke slowly. "Fine. I'll make this bet. It's not like I'd lose this anyhow so it seems harmless. If I win I want you to find a way to take Sebastian down a notch. I don't care what you do, just make him look like a fool, make him fail to follow my orders, whatever seems right to you. If I win you must succeed in this, is that understood?"

"Understood completely earl. Now what about my conditions?"

"Well? What are they?"

"Do you promise to participate in this bet, even after I voice my conditions?"

"Yes, yes, I already agreed you idiot. Will you get on with it-" ciel grumbled

"Alright. If you win, I'll follow your order. However, if I win earl? If I win, I get to kiss you" Lau said with a glint in his half lidded eyes.

Ciel choked on his tea. He had expected a lot from the strange man but this had not even crossed his mind. Now that he thought about it though, it made sense in a weird way. After all, wasn't this the man who was always touching him and doing what by some might be considered flirting? Before now he had thought it was just lau being lau. Now though, he considered whether maybe lau actually liked him, wanted him even.It would make sense given how the man acted around him but there was one thing that didn't make sense-

Still recovering from the shock, ciel exclaimed "but why? I'm not a girl! Surely you know that by now, or am I underestimating you?!"

Lau shrugged. "Trust me earl, I know you're not a girl. And I still want to kiss you. Anyhow, game at two pm tomorrow? I'll be here in the dining room, be sure to bring that butler of yours.ta ta, see you then" he said airily, and proceeded to wander out of the room as ciel stared at him in shock. Seconds later, ciel thought he heard humming outside in the hallway.

***

Sebastian knocked briefly on the door of ciel's office before entering with a tray of cakes. "My lord, did you call for sweets?" the butler asked.

"Sebastian you know perfectly well that I did. I need something else of you though. I'm having a game of cards with lau tomorrow, I order you to supervise the game and let me know immediately if he cheats in any way. Is that quite clear?"

"Quite my lord, although I find myself wondering why."

"You forget yourself. It's not your place to ask questions to me, simply to follow orders" ciel spat back

"Of course. I apologize" the butler said before leaving the room. Ciel glared at him, and then was left with his own thoughts. As much as the man irritated him, he was rather fond of lau. He often could be helpful , was competent when he wanted to be, and was entertaining and clever and always useful for a game when ciel couldn't sleep because of nightmares. He wasn't even half bad looking. Ciel found himself thinking about the fine bone structure of the Chinese mans face, his dark fringe framing it, and the golden brown his eyes were in the rare occasion he opened them. Ciel's thoughts wandered to the soft lilt of the mans voice, and his elegant hands that were often hidden with his sleeves. Realizing what he was doing, ciel abruptly stopped himself. He could appreciate that lau was aesthetically pleasing perhaps, but he was another man, and there was no way he wanted to be kissed by another man, much less this one. Of course it didn't matter, as he would win the bet. With that, the earl returned to his paperwork.

***

The next day, time seemed to go by faster than it ever had before. Suddenly, much before ciel was ready, it was three o'clock. All the way to the dining room, he dragged his feet. When he arrived, lau and sebastian were waiting at the table. Lau had the pack of cards in his hand, ready to deal.

Ciel flung himself into his seat. "We might as well get started, deal them lau. And Sebastian, you have your orders."

Lau dealt out the cards. He was uncharacteristically silent but had a slight smile on his face which concerned ciel more than anything. Once the cards were dealt, they began to play. Neither of them made conversation, unlike their other games. This time, the stakes were too high.

***   
Ciel was beginning to panic. He was supposed to be the better player. Lau was supposed to be incompetent without his cheating skills. Yet here he was, the game almost up and about to lose to the older man.

When lau put down his last card it seemed to happen in slow motion to ciel. Lau leaned back in his chair and smirked while ciel glared daggers at him. 

"Sebastian. Tell me the truth, did he cheat?! This is an order!" The earl spoke angrily.

"From what I saw, the game was completely honest on both sides. Terribly sorry to disappoint, I suppose your skills simply aren't what you thought they were." Sebastian mocked 

Ciel thought to himself. Some might just back out, but those would not be the head of the phantomhive household. He had pride. He had his family name. And he had never backed out of a bet.

The earl looked at his butler. "Sebastian this is an order. Leave this room now, and do not return until I call you"

"Yes, my lord." with that the butler left, shutting the door behind him. Ciel turned to look at lau. The man was looking at him curiously.

"If you truly don't want to go through with this you can back out earl." 

Ciel glared. "A phantomhive never backs out of a bet" he responded stiffly.

"As you wish." And with that, lau walked around the table and leaned down. Ciel closed his eyes, bracing himself. Then he felt a brush of lips on his, soft and almost chaste, and then they were gone. The earl opened his eyes after a moment to see lau leaving the room.

***   
So here ciel was, laying awake in bed and thinking about his first kiss, how it had not been Lizzy, or some other suitable girl, but instead an opium dealing fool of a man. But what was worse than this was that he didn't regret it, that the kiss had been soft and sweet and for the first time in his life had made something in his heart flutter. For reasons unknown to him, ciel couldn't stop thinking about this kiss or the man it had been with.

Over the next few days lau continued to hang around, making useless comments and playing an occasional game of cards with ciel. He was acting as though nothing had changed between them which infuriated the earl to no end. Lau got to act like nothing happened while he had to think about this kiss every waking hour, to feel irritated when ran Mao sat too close to the man, to notice things he'd never noticed before like how full lau's lips were, or how long his neck was, or how much taller than him the man was, and worst of all, he had to deal with the strange urges he was having around the man. Instead of wanting to slap the fool when he said something stupid, he had the strangest urge to kiss him. When the man stood near, he had the strangest urge to get closer to him, to feel his heat through his robe thing that he always wore, to feel his arms around him. He even wanted to reach out and run his hands through lau's hair, to see if it was as soft as it looked. This was what he had to deal with, and lau got to act as though everything was normal? Not fair at all.

Finally one night when he couldn't sleep, he slipped out of bed and wandered down to the kitchens. It was early enough that the servants were still awake. When they saw him at the door, they all looked shocked.

"Hey lord, do you need anything?" Bard finally asked.

"Ugh no- well actually I suppose I could do with some cake if you have any?no? Oh well. Anyhow I couldn't sleep so I suppose I'll talk to you four. I need advice."

"Ooo I love giving advice!!" Mey Rin squeaked, while finny nervously promised he'd try his best to help."lay it on us then" said bard, leaning again the kitchen wall with something that looked suspiciously like a flamethrower in his hand.

Ciel pulled a bench up to the table and sat down. Despite how he might outwardly act uninterested in the servants of the household, in truth he enjoyed their company and cared about them very much. He wasn't certain they'd have good advice but it was better than asking Sebastian and enduring the teasing to go with it.

"Fine, first of all if word of this leaves this room, especially to Sebastian, I'll make you all suffer, is that quite understood?"

A chorus of "yes my lord"s eased the earls worries.

"Alright, well, what does it mean if someone kisses you and you thought you wouldn't like it but you do and then you can't stop thinking about them and you want to kiss them back or touch their hair or...or go on romantic picnics with them and do other disgusting stuff like that with them? Is that just a natural reaction to a kiss? Or does it mean I-" ciel shudders "have feelings for them??"

Bard raises his eyebrows. "Kid, I think the answer to that's pretty obvious"

Snake speaks up. "Oh my, you must be in love, how wonderful! ...says Emily"

"Alright fine maybe I have feelings, so what do I do?!"

Finny suggests bringing them flowers. Mey Rin says he should give them a breathtaking spontaneous kiss and sweep them off their feet.Bard gives him a bottle of oil with no explanation. Sticking the oil in his pocket, he thanks them for their advice and prepares to return to his room.

"Hey lord?" Finny asks politely, "can you tell us who it is?"

"Maybe someday finny" he answeres before shutting the kitchen door behind him and heading to bed, his head spinning.

***  
Ciel has been pacing his office for hours. Usually lau has appeared uninvited by now. What if lau doesn't come. What if he chickens out. What if he kisses the man and lau just makes fun of him. There are so many what ifs but if he doesn't do this he knows he'll regret it. However that doesn't make him any less nervous. Suddenly he hears the door open behind him. He turns around to see the Chinese man wander into the room. 

"Hey earl" he says with a smile.

Ciel wants to tell him he's late, to tell him to get out of his office, to tell him anything angrily, but he controls the impulse. Instead, he gathers himself and walks over to where lau is standing. The man looks down at him curiously. Ciel grabs the front of his chanshan and pulls him down into a kiss before he can overthink it.

The kiss starts out soft and sweet like before , and ciel feels things that he's never known. His heart aches and there are butterflies in his stomach and against all common sense he never wants to stop. Lau is kissing him back and pulls him closer till he's pressed against the older mans chest. It's perfect and soft and warm and all ciels ever wanted but never knew he needed, and the earl reaches up and tangles his fingers in lau's short dark hair, discovering it is as soft as it looked. The kiss deepens and ciel groans slightly before using all his willpower to pull away.when he looks at lau, he sees how undone the man looks, and it takes his breath away.

"Lau" ciel says softly "As much as I think you're a fool I suppose I'm rather fond of you, and you aren't terrible at you know, this, either. But I won't be a game to you. I am the earl phantomhive and this will only go on if you genuinely want to be with me and only me. So tell me now lau, what do you want?"

"Why earl I thought it was obvious. All I want is you."

Lau leaned foreward and kissed ciel softly. Ciel pushed him back. "But don't think for a second whatever this is will make me let you cheat at cards"

"Of course not my lord. I wouldn't expect any less of you. Just don't think for a second that I'll stop trying"

"You idiot"

"You call me an idiot, and yet you choose to kiss me. What does that say about you?"

"I don't know lau, what does it say about me?"

"Oh who knows, what are we talking about again"

Ciel groaned. He knew the man would never stop infuriating him. He also knew that he didn't ever want to be without the infuriating presence. Now all he needed to find out is why the hell bard gave him that bottle.

"Hey lau, why would someone give someone else a bottle of oil to help with their relationship?"

The End


End file.
